Review: Modkat Litter Box (after a month of owning three)

When we moved, we bought new litter boxes. We have three. In the Nuthaus, they were in the bathroom, our bedroom, and the unused fireplace (with half a curtain hanging in front of it for privacy and looks). Fortunately, here at Vogelfutter we have been able to move two of them to the bathrooms (one in a closet) and one in the laundry room.

Let me explain what my life looked like during the past few months at the Nuthaus: We had three covered/lidded litter boxes, with swinging doors for the cats' entries. One of our cats thought she had a UTI, and thus behaved as though she did (this is a thing cats can do; like, she was diagnosed with what's basically hypochondria, but cats can actually make themselves really sick, and she was even bleeding a little bit, but there was no physical reason). She was visiting the litter boxes 30+ times per day, often in rapid succession, one after another.

When I woke up, I'd have to sweep the bathroom floor before I could use the restroom, because Mal would want to crawl around and there was litter everywhere. Much of the time when I was... doing my business... I'd have to be REALLY exaggerated in making faces and saying, "Ewww! Don't put your hand in there! It's DIRTY! That's where the cats poop! YUCK!" Unfortunately, this typically backfired, as Mal thought it was hysterical and would reach inside, anyway.

We'd go into Mal's room, and there would be cat litter on the crib mattress, as that's a favorite resting spot for the kittehs. So I'd swipe that off and have to sweep his floor, too.

Later, when Mal bored with playing in his room after diaper change, he'd crawl back to our room to make sure his dad got up in time for work. I'd have to run in there and sweep our room so he wouldn't track through the litter.

Then, during the day, I'd sweep the whole house at least once, and the areas around the litter boxes two or three additional times. And I'd vacuum.

There was litter on the mantel, the coffee table, the bookshelves, and window sills.

It felt like a constant battle, and I was exhausted. I hated the cats. I wanted them to disappear.

Then there was that Mal liked to pull up on the litter boxes, and they were filthy. They all had filters in the top, to keep the smell from getting out, but that meant that there were lots of nooks and crannies where dust and old litter and cat hair could collect. We cleaned them regularly, but they always looked dusty and were dirty. Also, Mal sometimes decided that banging on the top wasn't enough, and he'd reach in, like that punch game on "The Price is Right."

I don't think he ever retrieved a treasure, but it was just a battle to try to keep his hands out of that stuff! (I guess it looks a lot like a sand box with which he *could* play, now that I ponder it.)

So.

Before we moved, we looked at the Modkat Litter Box.

You can see all of the features on the website, so I won't do a repeat here. Also, you might notice that right now the boxes are on sale for the low low price of $171! Now, when we bought them, they were the full $180.

No, we're not suckers.

Yes, we asked ourselves, "Is anything worth spending almost $600 on litter management?"

Then James asked me something, and in the throes of dealing with this, I did not hesitate with an affirmative answer: "Over the next two years, will it be worth it not to have to fight Mal?"

And we went for it.

We've been here just over a month. What do I think?

First, let me tell you what we did:

1) We didn't get black. The black boxes look so sleek, but one of the reviews I read said that even "dust-free" cat litter left dust on the plastic, making it look dirty. I got one red, figuring that if it looked janky, I could move it into the laundry room. Actually, you can see a thin film of dust on it, but it's not too noticeable, and I like how it looks in our bathroom. But white looks the nicest.

2) We made a commitment to clean out the boxes every day. I just did all three, and it took 3.5 minutes, including the time it took me to get a second bag because the first one was torn. So we're looking at spending half an hour or so a week on scooping out the boxes. BONUS...

3) Since we clean out every day, there aren't huge messes, and we haven't had to dump and refill yet. We top off every week or so, but I bought a 42-pound bag of litter before we moved in, filled each box, and we've been topping off... and we still have about 1/3 of the bag left. I was buying 14-17 pounds of cat litter EVERY WEEK because we were emptying it and starting over every weekend.

4) We use Fresh Step Multi-Cat. I hate clay litter. I love pine litter. However, when we lived in the trailer, we had awful fruit flies with the pine. Apparently, that just happens because there are larvae in it and they hatch and become... icky. We had the corn mix at Nuthaus for a while, and it got everywhere. Same with the really fine and "light" litter. We landed on Fresh Step Multi-Cat because it works best. I seriously think we've tried everything over the past couple of years.

5) We feed the cats a high-quality, no-filler food that cuts down on digestive waste. Better for the cats, easier for us. Probably a wash in the cost department, since they don't eat as much. (But, yes, it hurts spending more per pound on cat food than I do on some - most - of our meat.)

So.

Thursday is my day to sweep and mop all of the hard floors at Vogelfutter. Obviously, I touch-up sweep more regularly, but not necessarily every day. And certainly not multiple times per day. The boxes have cut down on tracking immensely. Like, I don't hate the cats anymore. I don't want to snuggle up with any of them, but I don't actively want them to pack their bags and get out, either. The other people around here seem fond of them.

The boxes take up less floor space than the other boxes we had. Their footprint is smaller, but they are taller, and there is plenty of room for the cats. Also, they are basically square, with no stick-outy parts, like where the lid to the other boxes hinged on, etc.

The boxes are sleek, with no place for dust and litter to collect. If litter gets on the lid, you can either sweep it back into the box with the brush on side of the scoop (each box comes with its own, so you don't have to lug one dirty scoop all over your house), or just open the lid and the litter falls back in. There is no way for the litter to fall off of the lid onto the floor unless maybe you were trying reallllly hard.

Because the boxes are so deep, my toddler cannot reach the litter. This is not to say that he can't see it, and that he can't drop things into the open hole. Oh, yes, he can. But I typically just wait until he's on to something else, remove the offending item, scald it, and am grateful that the child can't grab a handful of doo. Another benefit of cleaning the boxes every day is that whatever ends up in there usually just ends up with some clay granules on it. Nothing too disgusting so far.

Some of the reviews talk about how the boxes don't hold in the smells. I guess they don't, but I've only noticed a smell coming from one of the boxes (in the laundry room) one time since we moved. I'm guessing a cat had just gone, but that's also the most popularly-located box, and the most humid room, so it has a lot standing against it. Personally, I think it's better for the cats because the smell doesn't build up inside. We have one cat who will poop in the floor in front of the box if the odor in the box is not to her liking. That hasn't happened since we moved. (Again, probably also a function of our cleaning every day.)

The boxes have rubber feet, so if your cat is particularly enthusiastic about exiting the box, they're still not going to push it across the floor. Oh, no one else has cats that do that? Hmm. Must be nice.

So, all in all, my take is: Yes, it's freaking ridiculous that the litter boxes cost as much as they do. But we did a lot of research, and there's nothing that matches both the function and the look of these. I mean, you can throw $40 at a Clevercat top-entry box, but it's freaking huge and looks like you just sawed a hole in a storage container. Plus... so many nooks. So many crannies.

In the end, we were fortunate to be able to afford these, and I can tell you that my quality of life as a stay-home mom has improved immeasurably. Love them. Cannot recommend them highly enough.